and tax revenue as a share of our economy. mr. speaker, what you see on the chart with the green line is historical tax revenue. and what you see is going back to world war ii, going back to the mid 1940's, that it really has not mattered in the history of this nation whether the top tax rate was 90%, as it was before the kennedy years, or 70% as it was at the beginning of the kennedy years, or 28% as it was in the reagan years. it really has not mattered what the top bracket is. all americans are willing to give to government is about 18% of g.d.p. it turns out, mr. speaker, this will be no surprise to you, turns out americans are pretty smart. and if what you decide as the federal government is we're going to tax this behavior, well, americans start engaging in this other behavior instead. if what you say is no, i'm going to tax that behavior, they say, that's ok, i'll go do this instead. americans are pretty smart. and they change their behavior to maximize the benefit for their doctor -- themselves, their families and thei